Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Parallel translations
- WEB Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.
- KJV Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
- NKJV Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
- NASB Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
- NLT Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
It is presumptuous to condemn another's servant, for that servant answers to his own Master, the Lord. And God is able to uphold him so that he will stand.
Overview
Paul uses the image of household servants: a fellow believer is not our servant but Christ's, accountable to Him. To pass condemning judgment usurps the Master's place. The confidence is gracious: the Lord Himself has power to make His servant stand, so the weak believer's perseverance rests on God's keeping power, not on the approval of others.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Jas 4:11–12Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. And if you judge the law, you are not a practitioner of the law, but a judge of it.
- Rom 9:20But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”
- Rom 8:31–39What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
- Jude 1:24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—
- 1 Cor 4:4–5My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.
- John 10:28–30I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
- Ps 37:24Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, for the LORD is holding his hand.
- Rom 14:3The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him.
- Heb 7:25Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
- Rom 16:25Now to Him who is able to strengthen you by my gospel and by the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery concealed for ages past
- Isa 40:29He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.
- Ps 37:28For the LORD loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.
- Ps 17:5My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped.
- Deut 33:27–29The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He drives out the enemy before you, giving the command, ‘Destroy him!’
- Ps 37:17For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
- Acts 11:17So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”
- 1 Pet 1:5who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
- Ps 119:116–117Sustain me as You promised, that I may live; let me not be ashamed of my hope.
- Rom 11:23And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 14:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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